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Friday, March 7, 2014

Golden Sponge Cake 黄金海绵蛋糕

When my daughter first tasted this sponge cake, she told me this cheesecake is so light and good. But I told her that this is not a cheesecake but just a normal sponge cake. She just couldn't believe it! I am regret that I didn't make this good sponge cake much earlier.

The best thing is you can make this sponge cake anytime you want as the ingredients used are common, butter, flour, eggs, milk and sugar..﻿

Important tips to get this sponge cake right:-

1. bake it over low temperature first then later increase temperature to medium, and always bake it at the lower rack. So the cake will not shrink at all after it gets cool.

2. Also you need to have stable meringue which requires you to beat till stiff ..Don't worry stiff meringue created dry cake texture, because the batter is using 烫面 "Tang Mein" method (that means cook the egg yolk batter first).

I removed this cake using "bare hands" method. I will try to put up a video on this method soon.﻿

This cake is less sweet, so I could enjoyed with some homemade blueberries jam..﻿

177 comments:

Oh wow, gorgeous cake. Yes, I saw this slice cake at your Instagram page. Indeed, it sure fool me thinking that this is a cheesecake. Im sure alot of us will follow suit to bake this cake to indulge in.

Hi Sonia, after reading ur upload, i cannot wait to try out this cake. M baking it in the oven now. Hopefully all will turn out right like urs. Can't wait to see the end product. Btw, u said u removed the cake using ur hands. Is it like removing chiffon cake? Thanks for all ur delicious recipes!

Sonia, I have also tried this method long ago but not very successful cause the cake not very well rose. But still no time to troubleshoot the problem. hehe.... Yours look great. Really soft & perfectly done. Kudos !Hope you're having a lovely evening.Blessings, Kristy

Hi Sonia, my cake din turn out like urs. �� It cracked at the top although i followed ur recipe to the T. And when i overturn the cake to cool after taking out fr oven, the removable base slid down. Sigh! Wat cld gv gone wrong? Regards,Alicia

Alicia, I suspect is the oven temperature problem , every oven is difference , top cracked that means top heat too high and the base slid down is under bake .Maybe you could reduced temp to 160c at the second stage and move cake tin one level up or turn on the oven fan.

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Hi Sonia, you mentioned this cake is less sweet. So can I increase the castor sugar to 70g? Will it affect the texture and will it be too sweet? If not, kindly advise how much to increase to? Appreciate your reply. Thanks!

Sonia, saw ur cake the other day but too tire to leave a message here,now only come. Your cake does look a bit like Japanese light cheesecake hoh, esp with a smooth cake top. Looking forward to see your video clip soon.

Hi Sonia, thanks for reply. Yes will try the recipe as it is. By the way, how did you get such a flat (no dome or crack) top? Even the heat is so even.....I have never been able to achieve this in any of my caking baking. Appreciate if you could shed some light. Thanks!

wow that is amazing cake , i want to do this but i want to ask about measurements, is this true or false50 gm flour =1/2 cup50g butter =3.5tablespoons50g caster sugar = 12tablespoons6g corn starch=1tablespoonsand how much 55gm milk equals in cupplease answer to me i want to make this wonderful cakethank you

wow that is amazing cake , i want to do this but i want to ask about measurements, is this true or false50 gm flour =1/2 cup50g butter =3.5tablespoons50g caster sugar = 12tablespoons6g corn starch=1tablespoonsand how much 55gm milk equals in cupplease answer to me i want to make this wonderful cakethank you

Sonia, one last question to go and I will be baking this tomorrow morning......... how do you remove the cake when it has cooled down? Do I use a knife to go round the cake and slip my hand to the bottom and take out the cake? You mentioned you will try to put up a video on how to do it? Will the bottom stick to the cake tin as it is not lined and greased? Thanks, Sonia!

Thanks Sonia! I baked the cake 2 days ago. I failed terribly. My cake was burnt black on top but uncooked in the middle. My cake was already quite brown after 25mins at 140C. So I only baked for 10mins at 170C that's why uncooked in the middle. I took it out because it was already burnt black. I used a 3" height cake tin and the cake rose above 3" (I used 65gm eggs, could this be the reason?). So can I bake using a 7"x3" baking tin? Anyway, I want to try again tomorrow. Any more advice for me? Thanks!

Made this cake and it is incredibly soft and the sweetness is just right. My hubs thought the cake was bought from a high quality japanese bakery and he ate half of the cake in one sitting. Two thumbs up for this recipe and thanks for sharing!

Hi there...I came across your spong cake recipe..and it looked wonderful! Intried it today and cooled about 5 mins before overturning it upside down to cool down. After removing from pan, the bottom part sinked in... Was so upset..wonder what went wrong. Will be glad if you can advise.... I used a non stick normal 6" pan.

I've tried your recipe exactly each step and the cake after bake was perfect, I've never made any sponge cake which have the smooth surface like that. But one thing it make me confuse about the taste is it has a little sour taste, my mom after try the cake then she thought it's a yogurt cake. I don't know i make any wrong when make the cake or this cake must have the sour taste as your told on the top is your daughter think the cake is the chesesecake. Could you help me to make clear my confuse? Thank you Sonia.

Hi Sonia,I wld like to try your cake recipe but I live in Australia and we have different egg sizing system, cld you pls tell roughly the weight of size A egg as I tried to google but the results are very confusing (only found Large, XL, etc sizes).

phoebs, YS chew, I have doubt this cake can support the heavy swiss meringue, maybe non dairy whipped cream should be ok. Anyway, I have to try out then only can let you know whether it work or not. Or maybe you try it out and let me know.

Ariana, I was thinking to use this recipe to make into cream cheese cake too. If I will make this, then I will replace some butter with cream cheese.

My Lee, the A size egg I usually use is 66g-68g (with shell) , 56g-57g without shell. Hope this helps.

Hi Sonia, I made this cake twice and didnt succeed. The first time, the bottom of the cake has a thick and transparent layer of oil. I wondered why and realized I used margarine. Maybe that was why. The second time I made it, this time with butter, the bottom still has a thin layer of oil formed although not as thick as the first one. Also, the cake is not as fluffy because the bottom half of the cake is kind of dense-like. This happens on my first attempt with margarine also. Do you know why half bottom of my cakes are dense? Please advise! Thanks, Sonia!

Guess what, I'm eating this cake right now. Tried this recipe and it turned out great, fluffy and spongy. I have used a non stick pan but have greased it with butter and flour. It turned out great as I was worried that it might not rise. Thank you Sonia for the great recipe! - Shirley

I've tried 2 times. 1st times the cake sank. 2nd times, I increased eggs to 4 coz I'm using 7" pan. And the cake turn out to be good and light. Somehow the sweetness taste is very mild. Maybe I shud add little more sugar in future.

Hi Sonia, your golden sponge cake looks awesome! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I'm new in baking. I tried to bake this cake using a same 6" inches cake pan but my cake doesn't rise. It's only 1 and half inches tall. But it tasted so good just like a Japanese cheesecake. I used unsalted butter and I forgot to add in pinch of salt. Could it be the cause or its due to my skills in beating egg whites or folding egg whites to the egg yolk batter. I'm gonna try it again next week!

OH MY GOODNESS!!! Absolutely great recipe! Stumbled upon ur recipe today and made it and I wanna tell u never once I have made such good cake! Smells like heaven too! Thank you! The surface was perfect too! My first time ever making a smooth surface cake! --Yen

Sonia, today I made this in a removable base pan. Looks good when it came out from the oven. I inverted it to cool for almost an hour. When I removed the paper from the base of the cake, the bottom of the cake is not flat, it sort of sunk. I wonder if I left it inverted for too long?

Veronica , in my recipe I didn't line paper at all, if you line paper then you have to remove cake from tin after cool maybe for 10mins, the longer you keep, hot steam will turn the cake wet and sunk too.

I m baking it now..exactly follow your advise eventhough i was quite worried how the 6g corn flour looks like..it was about 2 tsp thru my recent observation..the cake still in the oven but raising fantastically n perfectly..i never had this kind of look (while they were still in the oven) for any sponge cake that i baked before..i wish i can update the full result later..many thanks to you Sonia - Emy

I am a newbie in baking, tried your baking the sponge cake today, but it didnt rise at all though I added all the ingredients listed. Pls let me know what could have gone wrong ...the cake tasted so good & I would like to try it again

hi.. thanks for this recipe. i have try it, this morning. follow every step (but add more sugar about 10 gr), i use square pan about 6,5", but it turn out right. soft and spongy. my doughter love it. but i think i cant use it for b'day cake. it just to soft, i think. thank you so much, and big hug for you.

HI Sonia,I love your blog and have tried several of your recipe, including this basic sponge cake which i tried today.. the result was good, it shrink a bit after cool down, but never mind to me.. and the taste is just so nice. Thank you sooo much for sharing this recipe and i cant wait to try your other recipe.Ike

Hi Sonia, I did this with some adjustment to oven temp as my oven temp is usually hotter. It's awesome! I did not have salted butter so I used unsalted and added about 1/4 tsp of salt. It's a little salty though, have you tried it using unsalted butter before and will you think it's ok if I just use unsalted butter and not add any salt?

Hi Sonia, I tried your recipe twice but unsuccessful. My cake rose nicely during the 1st 25 mins at 140 Celsius but the top was slightly cracked later at 160 Celsius then sunk at the middle. When I cut the cake, the bottom of the middle sunk part looked "densed" but the top and sides seems nice and fluffy. I wonder what went wrong?

Eleen Tan, every oven is difference, maybe you should try to reduce temp and see how the outcome.

Sasa, i suspect you might have under mixed the batter (when mix egg yolk batter with meringue) or meringue was not beat well till close to stiff resulted not sufficient air to support the rise. Never give up and try again, read my recipe carefully, example transfer cooked flour into another clean bowl also an important aspect.

Hi Sonia, my two major problems when trying to make this cake is:1. the measurements were sooo confusing; I'm used to the measurements in mls and I most definitely used the wrong measurements. What would the flour, milk, sugar and corn starch be in mls?

2. I used an electric mixer to stir/mix/beat everything on low and when it didn't look right, I did it for longer on the highest setting. There was no mention of when you used an electric mixer and when you used something else, except the one mention of the hand mixer.

I can't tell how long you're supposed to beat/mix the ingredients either. I'm a total newbie and this is the first recipe of yours that I've tried. All the ingredients that I mixed looked very liquid, including the meringue which I've never made before.

When I made this:-I used a bbq oven; can't control the temperature (we have no kitchen right now)-we didn't have a hand mixer-my cake tin was black; non-stick type-we have no cake flour in Australia; I put 50ml plain flour and 10ml corn flour instead of 40ml plain flour and 10ml corn flour to make the cake flour (the measurement of 50ml cake flour is definitely wrong)

There is one important thing I jus noticed it. We have to turn baking tin for cooling. Do u use a non stick pan when u turn the tin ? Couldn see well in ur pic. How to ensure the cake around the tin will not turn wet when cake is totally covered during cooling.

Sonia, I tried your recipe twice but didn't managed get it as perfect as yours. I doubled the recipe (baked in a 8" pan) and followed the steps and temp. But my cake puffed up very high n was done bef the final 25 mins was up. However it sank (base and side) after unmoulding. I think the temp was too high so on my 2nd attempt, I started at 170 deg for 15 mins then reduced to 140 and baked for 1 hr but tanked the top for the first 20 mins. However I had to extend the baking time by an additional 15 mins to have it completely baked. The base of the cake (now the top after unmoulding) still sink. Btw, on my 2nd attempt, I steam-baked the cake hoping to have a better spread of the oven heat. Can you advise on how I can improve the bake?Doreen

Doreen, if you follow strictly to my recipe, first you should baked at 140C then only increased to 170C, and please use a Not a non-stick aluminium pan. For your 2nd attempted using steam baked, it might affect the temp.

I have tried this recipe twice but i cant seem to get the spongy effect on the cake. Can you advise me what type of flour are you using? (the brand etc).. I have a feeling i might not be using the right flour.

Hi Sonia.. Thanks for the tip. I shall try with super fine flour this time.. One more question, I cant seem to get the egg white and sugar mixture to reach stiff peaks.. it seems to be still runny even after a long while.. im using an electric mixer.. anything i might be doing wrong?

M3, make sure your mixing bowl is clean without any oil and water, and when separate the egg , make sure your hand is dry , do not left any tiny egg yolk in the egg white. Also I suggest you to add 1/2tsp lemon juices in egg white before we start to beat , so you can have stable meringue .

Hi SoniaYour cake looks very tempting. You mentioned to other commentators that for a 7 inch tin 4 eggs are needed. Should I increase other ingredients by propotion as well, i.e. times 4/3? Would it work please?

Hi,My cake was round and nicely formed in the oven. But after I took it out from oven to cool, the top sort of collapsed and the cake became concave. What could be the problem? Otherwise, inside is nice and soft. Tastes well too!

Christine, Chin Chin Ang, i suspected your cake is slightly over baked. When you remove cake pan from the oven, it will start to shrink, if the cake overbaked, the cake is stick to the wall of the cake pan, thatswhy middle started to shrink. The correct way should be whole cake start to shrink, and sides of the cake start to leave the wall, thatwhy it will shrink together and evenly. Suggest you try to reduce few minutes (maybe 5 mins) from the last baking time. Hope this hekps.

Hi Sonia,I followed every steps of your recipe, except the baking tin. I used a 7" non removable tin. The cake turns out good, no crack. But the base of the cake has a thin layer of "kueh", about 2-3mm. The top part is soft and cottony. Could you advise what's have gone wrong ? Thank you in advance

Hi SoniaThis cake looks very good and the method is very different so I tried this cake. I made few mistakes. I made it in non stick bread loaf pan :(It did not turn out good at all. Later I read the comments and now I get that this must be made in non non-stick round pan. So I'm going to get that cake pan and try again.However I have few more questions. How do you prepare your cake pan? Do you apply butter and flour to the bottom and the sides?Does cake comes off of sides and bottom easily without being in a non stick pan and no parchment paper?Recipe doesn't call for vanilla essence, and cake smelled and tasted like eggs. Can I add vanilla essesnse? 1 tsp?My cake sank in the middle. General reason for this is that your oven temperature is not sufficient/low. Your recipe specifically calls out for 140 C (240 F) for initial 25 mins, later increasing it to 1700 C (340F). I usually bake cakes at 350F here in US in a big oven. Can you please explain why do chiffon cake needs to baked at lower temperatures initially? Just curious. Though I had a failed attempt, I don't want to give up yet, as the cake looks very good and I want to give it another try. Thanks